Incident at Loch Ness

Incident at Loch Ness (2004) is a mockumentary comedy with a horror undertow you can watch online on iFILM. Director Zak Penn frames the film as fake documentary footage in which Werner Herzog, playing himself, travels to Scotland to make a sober movie about the lake's legend.

A camera trails Herzog as he muses on superstition and humanity's hunger for myth. Behind his back, though, the producer stuffs the expedition with props, rigged sonar and a plastic monster to manufacture a sensation — and the staging slips its leash once something real seems to stir in the black water. Two egos, two films nested inside one, a crew sliding toward panic. Jeff Goldblum, Crispin Glover and magician Ricky Jay turn up in passing.

The trick is that you can't quite tell where the prank ends and the danger begins until late in the runtime. Penn pokes at the very nature of documentary and at the mad-genius myth Herzog has long carried. It rewards anyone who likes a clever found-footage premise without cheap jump scares. Stream Incident at Loch Ness (2004) online on iFILM.